Obama wins Indonesian backing for Pacific trade pact

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama wonIndonesia's endorsement for a contentious trans-Pacific trade deal on Monday, withthe president of Southeast Asia's largest economy vowing to join.

During a meeting with Obama at the White House, Joko Widodo risked the ireof economic nationalists at home and pledged to join the pact.

"Indonesia is an open economy and with a population of 250 million, we arethe largest economy in Southeast Asia," Widodo said in the Oval Office.

"Indonesia intends to join the TPP."

Twelve countries are currently party to the "Trans-Pacific Partnership" – including Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Viet Nam and the United States – creating the world's largest free trade area.

The deal is seen by some as a counterbalance to growing Chinese economicclout in the region.

Widodo's endorsement is a political victory for Obama, who is steering thealready completed pact through a hostile Republican-controlled Congress andwithout the full backing of his Democratic party.

Hillary Clinton, the 2016 election frontrunner, has said the deal fallsshort of the "high bar" she had set for helping US interests.

Obama has claimed the TPP has the strongest labour and environmentalstandards of any trade deal signed by the United States.

Widodo comments will also raise hopes that he will help catalyse theworld's most populous Muslim nation, allowing Indonesia to finally punch itsweight.

Sketching out a "key strategic partnership" Obama – who lived in Indonesiafor nearly five years as a child – said the US needed good relations withJakarta.

"Obviously I have a very personal interest in Indonesia, given the factthat I spent a bit of time there as a child and have relatives who areIndonesian," Obama said.

"But what is also true is that our partnership is very much in theinterests of the United States, given Indonesia's large population, itsleadership in the region, its democratic traditions, the fact that it is alarge Muslim country with a tradition of tolerance and moderation, and its rolein trade and commerce and economic development."

Widodo's visit to the White House was the first by an Indonesian presidentin a decade and came exactly a year after the former furniture salesman becamepresident.

In surviving even that long, he has defied sceptics who predicted he wouldquickly flounder in the oligarch-infested waters of Indonesian politics.

Obama endorsement

In the Oval Office, Obama offered his own endorsement, praising theeconomic reform efforts of a fellow 54-year-old who, like him, swept to poweras an outsider promising change.

Unemployment among the vast ranks of Indonesia's youth stands at more than20 per cent, and efforts to attract investors have been undercut by economicnationalism, vested interests and red tape.

In Washington, Widodo met with executives from several US firms, includingGE, Caterpillar and Coca-Cola, to finalise 12 investment deals worth a total of$20.25 billion to improve Indonesian infrastructure.

"Now is the time to invest: Indonesia is open for business," Widodo said ina statement released by his embassy. — AFP